fast and curious

October 2016

Welcome back to Thai's Teasers! Dedicated readers might have noticed that we took a few weeks off from our weekly brain ticklers. And to those who didn't notice, it's OK; I won't take it personally. What? What's that? No, I'm fine. I was just cutting onions.

But yes, we are back with a new brain teaser each Saturday to ruin brighten your weekend. And in the spirit of brightening your weekend, I promise that I won't do a politically themed teaser before the election. You get enough of that in your Facebook feed in the posts from that guy you met at that party that one time. So here we go...

Here in Menlo Park, California, despite it nearing Halloween, the weather is still beautiful. This past Thursday morning, we did what we do every Thursday morning when it's not raining (i.e., every Thursday): we played ultimate frisbee at the park. We play with a fairly standard disc that weighs 175 grams and is 27.3 cm across.

Now super-stud-player Alonzo has a wicked forehand that sends the disc spinning at 3.2 rotations per second with sniper-worthy accuracy. On this day, a poor ant hitched a ride on the disc just as Alonzo sent it flying. It was on the very edge of the disc and cruising along at 4cm/sec. How long does it take for the ant to crawl all the way around if the disc is spinning counter-clockwise and the ant is walking clockwise?